Baltimore, MD –The NAACP is outraged at reports that in a June meeting with then Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly, Domestic Policy Adviser, Stephen Miller, and other administration officials, President Trump said of Haitian immigrants that they “all have AIDS,” and that Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts” in Africa.
“If these reports are true, it is utterly disgraceful that the President holds these views,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO. “There is nothing correct about these foolish and uninformed perspectives about Haitians and Nigerians – and by extension all peoples of African descent. The practice of inclusion is essential to our democracy. Yet, again and again, President Trump and his administration have shown a lack of understanding of the entrepreneurial, economic, and cultural contributions of immigrants of color.”
From ending theDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections to the suspension of the Temporary Protected Status program for nearly 59,000 Haitian immigrants, it is evident that the President’s sole focus is to furtherdemonize non-white immigrants.
“The blatant racism and general disregard for the civil rights and liberties of people of color have not gone unnoticed. By instituting policies that marginalize poor and working immigrants of color, the administration’s aim to architect an America that is Protestant, white, male and wealthy is clear, and we will not let this stand.”
